And We're Off!

While I certainly don't need an excuse to spin, I look forward to the Tour de Fleece every year because it's a chance to really focus on my spinning. I think we really lucked out with having the Tour start on a weekend this year [EDIT: I've just been informed that the Tour de France always starts on the first Saturday in July -- apparently I haven't been paying much attention!], and I found myself with quite a bit of time at the wheel. Yesterday, especially, I did a lot of spinning. It was a generally gloomy day for much of the day, and while we did venture out a bit to do our grocery shopping, most of the day was spent doing our favorite leisure activities. Rainbow watched some favorite Disney shows and played with Legos, the Mister took a nap and later went for a run, and I was at my wheel.

I'm working on fiber from Southern Cross Fibre and FatCatKnits primarily this year, and my SCF project is a large one -- I'm attempting to spin a total of 550 g of Charollais. You may remember that I split up the fiber into six bundles last week, and yesterday I spun the first one of them.

This particular bundle was 92 g (I weighed all of them before I started spinning; they're more or less even, give or take 5 g or so). I discovered that this fiber spins fairly well long draw, even though I think the preparation is top. The singles certainly aren't super even, but then with woolen spinning, they're really not meant to be. I have no idea how much yarn I'll end up with, but I should have two good-sized skeins when I'm done. Perhaps I'll end up pairing them with the yarn I spin from this lovely, woolly bag of chocolate Bond that arrived late last week:

This picture doesn't do it justice -- it's so much richer in color than it looks here. David was offering this fiber at such a bargain that I just couldn't resist.

Meanwhile, today I started a new spin, FCK Rambouillet in one of Ginny's TdF colorways, Dame Godel.

This I'm spinning very fine, from one end of the top to the other, and I'll chain ply when I'm done. This fiber, as I expected, is drafting effortlessly, though I think it will take a while to get through it all. But there is a holiday coming up on Tuesday, and that means bonus spinning time!